For several weeks now whenever my computer sits idle for more than a few minutes, my hard drive begins a cascade of activity as if it were going through start-up and runs on continually until I click something. Then it begrudgingly halts. What’s up with that? I recently installed Front Page 2002 and installed then uninstalled Black Ice Defender. Any connection? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

It could be system restore. goto start-->run and type msconfig. Click on startup tab and post back what you are running.

Dave, all the following are listed as checked and running: MSMSGS ctfmon.exe ScanRegistry TaskMonitor PCHealth SystemTray LoadPowerProfile WorksFUD Microsoft Works Portfolio Microsoft Works Update Detection EM_EXEC TICASUTIEXE RxMon Madexe MULTIMEDIA KEYBOARD Adaptec DirectCD MMTray LoadQM MotiveMonitor Norton Auto-Protect NAV DefAlert NvColorlnit RealTray TraySantaCruz LoadPowerProfile SchedulingAgent SSDPSRV *StateMgr ScriptBlocking StilllmageMonitor MOSearch MDM7 Microsoft Office StartUp Cal reminder shortcut Resolution Assistant Dell Service RealDownload

Hey charlie a, First go to run and type MSCONFIG, then go to start up and uncheck some of the un-needed. Like the ones below. PCHealth LoadPowerProfile (showing twice) Norton Auto-Protect NAV DefAlert I know what your thinking about the Norton, ahhh I'm not protected. You know you can update it when you wanna, and run checks when you wanna, if your scared get Zone Alarm. It's probably part of the problem. Take it EZ..

Yes you certainly have a lot of programs running.

I would get rid of Real Download. The Real Networks software messed up my system bad. It might be trying to download something that you won't want. What is RealTray and TraySantaCruz? They might be suspect too.

Thank you all for pointing me in the right direction. My own further investigation via google has found the most excellent page for explaining all the different creatures one may find lurking under the startup tab in msconfig. It’s fairly comprehensive. The URL is: http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm. Anyone else curious about what all these startup programs are will find it a must read. I think my problem is in MOSearch. This is an indexing tool in MicroOffice than can develop into a hard drive exhibiting the runs. It also may fire up the same problem in FrontPage. I am tweaking and unchecking boxes. Ciao.